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SERM do, whether it be Beneficent or not? The XIV. True Notion therefore of the Goodness

of God, must be learnt by confidering what Goodness is in Men; And by adding, to the Idea of a good Man, boundlefs Perfection in the Degree of those Qualifications which denominate him fuch, we arrive at the nearest Conception, that 'tis poffible for Us to frame, of the Divine Goodness. Thus our Saviour himself teaches us to argue; St Matt. vii. II, If ye then, being evil, know how to give good Gifts unto your children; how much more fall your Father which is in Heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Now Goodnefs in Men, fignifies a Benevolent Difpofition; a Difpofition to do good to others, even more extenfively, and with greater Benignity, than is required by That Virtue which we call Justice, or Righteoufness. According to That accurate Distinction of the Apostle, Rom. v. 7, For a righteous [or Juft] man, fcarcely will one die; yet peradventure for a Good man, fome would even dare to die. Righteoufness, or Justice, is. doing all that Good to Others, which They have any Claim of Right to demand; But Goodness is, fur

ther,

XIV.

ther, doing them All that Good, which, S ER M. whether They have any Right to expect or not, is in any wife fit, or reasonable, for Us to bestow. Thus therefore the Goodnefs of God, is That Beneficent Difpofition of the divine Nature, which moves him to diffuse upon All his Creatures through the immenfe Universe, and through a Boundless Eternity, every good thing that is proper for them, every thing that tends to their True Happiness, every good which either They are in their own Nature capable of receiving, or which for Him, in his All-wife Government of the Whole, is fit and reasonable to give.

AND from hence, by the way, 'tis evident demonftrably, that there is not, there cannot be any fuch thing, as abfolute and unconditionate reprobation. For, This being a matter wholly contradictory to all our Notions of Goodness; if absolute and irresistible Sovereignty could fuffice (as fome Sects of men have imagined) to make fuch a thing become Good, it would follow that the word, Goodness, had no fignification at all; and confequently, that it was neither in itself c± any importance, nor of any confequence

SERM. to Us, whether the Almighty God was XIV. Good or no. Than which, nothing can be affirmed more unworthy of the Creator of all things; or be more deservedly reckoned among thofe hard Speeches, which if not unrighteous, yet at least rash inconJude 15. fiderate men, have spoken against him.

2dly, HAVING thus therefore briefly explained in general What Goodness is, it will now be eafy in the 2d place to prove, that God actually is, and cannot but be Good, according to this general Notion of Goodness. For, Goodness being nothing elfe but a fixt Disposition, to do always what in the Whole is Best, and (fo far as is confiftent with Right and Justice) what is moft beneficial to All; 'tis evident that the Supreme Being, having all Knowledge, fo that his Understanding can never err in judging what is Beft; and having no Want of any thing to complete his own Happiness, fo that his Will can never be influenced by any wrong Affection, or have any poffible Temptation laid before it to act otherwise than according to what he knows is Beft; 'tis from hence, I fay, very evident to Reason, that the Supreme Caufe being thus neceffarily Happy in

the

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the eternal enjoyment of his own infinite S ER M. Perfections, and altogether incapable of XIV. being tempted with Evil; could not pof

fibly have any other Motives to make any Creatures at all, but only that he might communicate to them his own Perfections, Goodness and Happiness; according A to their different Capacities, arifing from that Variety of Natures, which 'twas fit for infinite Wisdom to produce; and according to their different Improvements, and Deferts, arifing from that Liberty, which is effentially Neceffary to the Conftitution of Intelligent and Active Beings. God therefore, is Neceffarily and Effentially Good. And yet, even This Neceffity arifing wholly from the unalterable Rectitude of his Will, (whereas his natural Attributes, fuch as Knowledge and Power, arife immediately from abfolute Neceffity of Nature;) there is therefore This diffe rence, that, whilft for his Power, Knowledge, and the like, we can only admire and adore him, for his Goodness we return him moreover Praife and Thanks. For which reason, the Scripture not only conftantly confirms, what natural Reafon teaches us, that God is Good; but repre

fents

SER M. fents it alfo as the Attribute wherein he XIV. chiefly delights; and describes it always in

the tenderest and most affectionate expreffions. Like as a Father pitieth his children, fo the Lord pitieth them that fear him, Pf. ciii. 13. I am the Lord, which exercife loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the Earth; for in these things I delight, fays the Lord, Jer. ix. 24, and If. xlix. 15, Can a woman forget her fucking-child, that she should not have compaffion on the Son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. In the fecond commandment, when God had threatned judgments to the third and fourth generation of them that bate him; To fhow how much more he delights in rewarding than in punishing, he promises mercy unto Thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments. And 'tis not without a very fignificant and expreffive emphafis, that our Saviour fo remarkably affirms, St Mar. x. 18. There is none Good, but One, that is God. But This in general.

3dly, I propofed in the 3d place to fet forth diftinctly, in what particular Intances the Divine Goodness has more pe

culiarly

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